


Playlist

by Nemhaine42



Category: Thor (Movies)
Genre: Gen, brotherly sadness, hints of Tasertrickery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-30
Updated: 2014-03-30
Packaged: 2018-01-17 15:19:58
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,240
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1392529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nemhaine42/pseuds/Nemhaine42
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor brings back souvenirs. Darcy's gift gives a little more than he anticipated.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Playlist

In anticipation of his return visit to Asgard, Thor had been thoroughly briefed on Midgardian etiquette for souvenirs: when on trips abroad, it was customary to bring back gifts for friends. Erik had told him that thoughtful gifts were best. Darcy told him silly tourist trinkets were a must. Jane insisted he needn’t feel obliged to bring back anything. But the God of Lies, Jane was not. He’d fully intended on bringing her back one of those balls she’d been so taken with, and it would likely be no trouble to find gifts for the other two.

 

Or so he’d thought. Jane’s ball had been purchased and packed shortly after his arrival but ideas for Erik or Darcy were thin on the ground. He supposed the most common ‘tourist trinket’ was an amulet in the shape of Mjölnir but he’d definitely seen those on Midgard already. Eventually he found a leather-bound notebook for Erik, decorated with Odin’s ravens, which he supposed was a useful gift at least. That only left Darcy. Darcy was not curious in the same way Jane was, she wouldn’t take apart a child’s toy to see how it worked. And Thor expected she would find a more practical gift a little boring, even if she would not say so. He was forced to admit that much of Darcy’s manner reminded him rather of Loki. Not everything she did, but some of her behaviour that went unnoticed by Jane or Erik spoke of great similarities to his brother. Teasing, jokes based upon wordplay and withering glances. She even seemed to sport the same look of disgruntled concentration when she studied.

 

“Does she also study the cosmos, as does your Jane?” asked Volstagg. Dinner at Volstagg’s home was always relaxed, so Thor had little worries over confiding in his friend once the children were out of earshot. He heard the eldest son being chastised, told to come downstairs and help set the table.

 

“No. She aids Jane where she can but Miss Darcy’s field lies in politics. Laws and ruling,” Thor said. He caught Volstagg’s pointed look and conceded that that only fostered further comparison.

 

“Maybe it is just the face one makes when learning of government,” Volstagg offered with a smile. A lanky boy in the early grip of adolescence finally traipsed down the stairs, with his mother yanking at little round objects in his ears.

 

“Those are for studying, not for ignoring honoured guests!”

 

“Mother, I _was_ studying!”

 

Upon Thor’s return to the palace, feeling not a little ale-soaked and melancholy, he ventured into his brother’s chambers. A thick layer of dust now covered everything but his mother had bid no-one touch the room. And now it would be to violate the memories of two departed souls, so Loki’s rooms would stay as they were. Mostly. He’d caught his father there once, using it as a quiet space to collect his thoughts. Seeing the ear pieces Volstagg’s son had been using brought forth memories of Loki too burying himself in school work, using music and sound to remove all distraction. And with those memories followed the recognition that Darcy was equally attached to a similar device for similar purposes. Surely the Asgardian equivalent would make for a well-thought out present. He half expected Loki to burst in and shout angrily at him for taking his belongings, for daring to share them with a _human_ of all creatures. But his brother had not been seen to use the thing for years, even before their… separation. And it would do nothing but sit there for ever more now. Loki’s collection had been, still was, vast and there was no sense in leaving it there doing nothing. So the little square base and earbuds were packed away, next to Jane’s ball and Erik’s book.

 

Thor was a little afraid Darcy would not like his gift, that she would not want something that had belonged to Loki. He had wanted to present it to her in private where he might better explain why he had chosen it for her. But such luck was not to be had; Jane was ecstatic with her ball and Erik very pleased by his notebook. And all three friends sat waiting for whatever Darcy’s gift was going to be. He paused and Thor saw a flash of of hurt and disappointment in Darcy’s eyes before he threw caution to the wind and reached for the little gold box, placing it on the table before them.

 

“It is called a Sound Bank,” he explained, helping Darcy to insert the earpieces and start the device, “It is powered by light of the sun and functions much as your iPod does. The base may be used to listen aloud but the earpieces are the main part, so you may wander far and wide with them. Mostly youngsters use it to focus their attention on study but others have amassed great archives of music and readings. I thought you might like to compare Asgardian tastes with your own.”

 

She proclaimed it to be ‘awesome’ and got the hang of navigating the display much faster than Thor had anticipated. She was yet unable to read the names of things, written in runes, but deciphered the symbols and buttons which drove the device rather easily, tapping away at the lights projected a few inches from her face. He thought he might get away without having to mention its previous owner as she listened and explored.

 

“Thor… how much music is in here? Did you buy all this?”

 

Or perhaps not.

 

“Well… truthfully… the network by which you would acquire music will not reach Midgard, so…” he braced himself, “so it is, in fact, my brother’s collection. It is several centuries in the making, some ten thousand pieces I believe.” The last time he’d seen it anyway, which was a very long time ago so there was likely a great deal more than that.

 

Darcy and Jane sneaked glances at Erik, who was doing his best to force impassiveness.

 

“I hope you do not mind,” Thor said gently.

 

“No, it’s… I…” Darcy sighed, “Thank you, Thor. I’ll take good care of it. Even when I find his embarrassing teeny-bopper phase.”

 

He wasn’t sure what the exact Asgardian version of that was, but he smiled and Darcy went back to sampling the music.

 

Eventually Darcy would corner him and have him make her a runic ‘cheat sheet’ so she could translate the titles, or transliterate them at least. He was very pleased with the way Darcy seemed to spend every waking moment attached to the Sound Bank, thinking her enraptured with Asgardian music. That was until Jane instructed him to speak with Darcy about, perhaps, siphoning off her attention to other matters.

 

“Just make sure she’s not… getting in too deep,” Jane pleaded, “I mean, it could take her years to go through the whole thing and I think it’s distracting her… it _is_ just music in there, right? You checked it?”

 

“Of course, Jane. I will speak with her. Perhaps it is too much of a good thing?” he said with an uneasy smile. Thor was not the God of Lies either. He’d had a Sound Bank himself, although his more physical learning style meant he made little use of it, he knew the system had other functions. There was a section for notes, and a way to record for oneself. He’d not known Loki to access these but nor had he checked, and since when did Loki tell him everything? He approached Darcy when she was camped on the rooftop, surrounded in blankets while she studied and listened away. She had her laptop in front of her and bounced from typing to scribbling on notepaper every now and then, her serious-learning expression in place. But as Thor sat down on the lawn chair next to her, he saw that Darcy was not focused on her papers or textbooks but on translations of titles and passages. He had not given her much beyond the alphabet and numerals on the cheat sheet, how had she managed to put so much into English? Darcy finished whatever sentence she was working on and snapped to attention. She hastily depowered the display and removed the earbuds.

 

“Hey, Big Guy. How’s things?”

 

“All is well… I… I’m glad to see you enjoying the music,” he said tentatively, “but I wondered if you might like to take a break? Jane has missed your efforts and has her concerns…”

 

“I guess I have been pretty zoned out, huh?” Darcy admitted, she followed his line of sight to all pages and pages of translation.

 

“How have you done all this?”

 

“Oh, well, I figured out the closest thing to… Asgardian-speak or whatever, is Icelandic. It’s closest to what we call Old Norse so… I mean it doesn’t always work but it’s a really good base to have. I just use Google and guesswork,” she shrugged.

 

There was something else. Finding a related language, though interesting, would only cause her to dedicate such time and effort if there was something intriguing to translate. Something beyond symphony or polka titles.

 

“Will you share it with me?” he asked, “It was my brother’s, not mine. What is it you have found that entices you so?”

 

She ducked her head a little, “Yeah… I don’t know… at first I was just translating the playlist titles. The, uh, collections he’d made up of similar music, you know? There’s a big mix. He was eclectic.”

 

Thor nodded solemnly.

 

“I found his Sad Playlist,” she said smiling weakly, “That had a lot in it. And there was other stuff… stuff that’s not music. There’s a bunch of notes that I can’t make much sense of yet, not sure I want to.”

 

She bit her lip and picked up her notepad, showing him copied out runes and their English transliterations interspersed with symbols that he was sure had no Midgardian equivalent. The sentences made little sense to him either but he recognised the notation style for what it was.

 

“Is it magic?” Darcy asked, sounding more excited at that prospect than he might like. He confirmed that it was, indeed, magic, though likely not of any forbidden or dangerous kind. Just practice notes taken by a young boy who didn’t want his brother to know which spells he’d have up his sleeve.

 

“There’s a video too, if you want to see,” she said. She took his silence as a ‘yes’ and put the earbuds back in their base, scrolling and tapping through the archive. Thor would have said she did it expertly so, if he had not known otherwise. It was well-known that the young have great talent for technology. She played back a recording Loki had made of himself, at an age a Midgardian might call 15 or 16, practicing the spell which cloaked his appearance in that of another. He would turn this way and that, changing the way the illusion interacted with the light in the room. A mirror was not always immediately helpful, a recording would have allowed him to review his skill and spot areas for improvement.

 

“He looks so different than when he was in New York,” Darcy said softly, “I mean, younger yeah. But… I don’t know… he moves differently.”

 

Of course. This was a Loki not tortured by alienation or anger or powerlessness. This was the Loki he trusted and who had trusted Thor in return. This was his little brother. His little brother who would never come back, even if he were alive. The young man in the video seemed to concentrate hard, as he created the illusion of being blonde haired and blue eyed, looking at himself in a mirror beyond the recording. It looked very strange and Loki squeezed his eyes shut and shook his head, dispelling the magic. He came forward and the recording cut off. Thor had forgotten just how it had bothered Loki to be pale and dark next to his own golden hair. Seeing his brother imitate such a thing, as if it would have been seen for anything other than trickery, brought a lump to Thor’s throat.

 

Taking a deep breath, he turned to Darcy, “how is it you saw him in New York? Were you not with Jane?”

 

“Oh, oh yeah. I, uh, _acquired_ access to a video feed of you guys fighting,” she said sheepishly, “It was pretty impressive.”

 

He gave her thanks and a nod, before eliciting a promise that she would give the Sound Bank a rest and heading back inside. He didn’t notice the sad look on Darcy’s face as he turned away. She put the ear pieces back in and viewed a second video. She swallowed the guilt as she watched what was clearly an accidental recording, the camera having been swept to the floor. Loki, grown and in the more familiar armour, flew about his room simmering in frustration. A knock at the door snapped him into alertness and he cast over himself an illusion of Odin all-father. He waved his hand and the room’s disarray repaired itself, the Sound Bank’s recording ending abruptly.

 

Darcy knew she ought to have shown this to Thor but she feared the repercussions, feared stirring the pot. She knew she was not brave enough to risk bringing Loki’s wrath upon herself. She hid the video away in a playlist.

  



End file.
